In Branson, Missouri, U.S., the saying “the show must go on” is more than just a cliché, it's a fact of life. Live stage shows are I the economic lifeblood of this modern-day boomtown. In less than a decade, more than two dozen theatres have sprung up and now offer nearly 75 performances every day to entertain the area's 5 to 7 million annual visitors (Fig. 1).

Perhaps second only to theater owners and performers, the White River Valley Electric Cooperative (WRVEC) in Branson feels the most pressure to make sure the show goes on day after day. The last thing a theatre owner needs is a prolonged power outage in the midst of the afternoon show. Such interruptions could ruin a production financially and damage the town's reputation.

WRVEC currently provides electricity to about 40,000 residential and commercial customers in a five-county area (Fig. 2), making it the second-largest electric cooperative in Missouri. In just five years, the demand for electricity from WRVEC jumped 30%; fortunately, WRVEC was well positioned to manage the growth and is ready for more.

In 1996, WRVEC converted its engineering documents from a paper to a digital environment with an automated mapping/facilities management/geographic information system (AM/FM/GIS) implementation by Utility Automation Integrators (UAI), Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. This streamlined functions across the enterprise by integrating engineering and operations applications into one system. Early in 2001, WRVEC completed an upgrade to the AM/FM/GIS by extending it to the Web. More than 60 people now access the network map, customer information and landbase to perform mapping, field staking and maintenance, engineering planning, work order management, outage analysis and dispatch functions.

Choosing an AM/FM/GIS Package

Prior to the original automation, WRVEC worked almost entirely in a paper environment. When a request for new service came in, paper work orders with network sketches were generated and circulated. For an average installation, each paper map had to be touched by five different departments. “The real problem was that we created our as-built maps on an annual cycle and there was always a backlog,” said Chris Hamon, WRVEC's general manager. “Our field crews often had to wait anywhere from 8 to 12 months to get the paper as-built maps in their trucks.”

Without current maps readily available, WRVEC's ability to install new service or to quickly track down the source of outages was seriously hindered. Accelerated growth in the early 1990s underscored the need to automate operations so that planning engineers, staking engineers, dispatchers and field crews could have direct access to the most up-to-date information.

WRVEC realized that AM/FM/GIS technology was the solution and envisioned building a customizable system that would allow personnel to access data from multiple databases to display customer, network and other information within the geographic context of the map.

“The systems we first considered were too limiting; they would have required us to adapt our operating procedures to accommodate them instead of the other way around,” said Hamon.

WRVEC officials ultimately met with UAI, developers of a suite of AM/FM/GIS products created specifically for utility applications. The UtilityCenter suite had instant appeal to WRVEC because of its high level of customization, its compatibility with other automated systems and its ability to run on existing PCs.

Installing the Mapping System

UAI installed the AM/FM/GIS in 1996, and WRVEC immediately began populating it with components of its electrical distribution network. Rather than digitize all features from paper maps, WRVEC opted to build the network map from scratch by using GPS to survey the precise locations of poles, meters, transformers, capacitors and underground facilities.

The AM/FM/GIS had a significant amount of intuition built into it. As WRVEC added the locations of poles, conductors and transformers to the GIS map, the system determined the correct electrical connectivity among the components.

Initially, WRVEC contracted out for GPS services but later hired a full-time mapping expert to complete the work. WRVEC even used vehicle-mounted GPS to update the locations of new roads and subdivisions for inclusion in its landbase, which was an off-the-shelf digital streets package.

This GPS mapping and digitizing phase of the mapping system development accounted for about US$1.7 million out of the entire two-phase AM/FM/GIS implementation. WRVEC estimates it spent US$4 million to map the location of each of its 90,000 utility poles, but considers this well worth the expense, because it ensured the new digital map was accurate to within 5 ft (1.5 m) on the ground.

“Once the mapping system was operational, our turnaround time for getting maps to our crews and engineers dropped from eight months to one day,” said Hamon.

With the GIS system, anyone working on the computer network can view and query the entire electrical distribution system in the context of a map and zoom in on a neighborhood or single building. A click of the mouse enables the user to see the connectivity of transformers, meters and other components serving that customer location. A link allows a user to view customer billing and address information at the same time. More importantly, the engineering department creates its own customized routines without UAI assistance. Most of these involve the addition of certain fields to the database — the dates of transformer installations, for example — to enable rapid queries that display equipment by age or other characteristics.

One of the greatest benefits of the mapping system is in customer service. If the owner of a new theatre calls to inquire about the status of a service request, almost any WRVEC employee can pull up the correct work order on screen and let the owner know exactly what progress has been made. Because work orders now move electronically through departments, new service requests and outage complaints are handled much faster.

Using Specialized Applications

In addition to the mapping system that lies at the heart of the AM/FM/GIS, White River also uses two specialized applications targeting field engineering and outage management.

uaField puts work orders and the GIS map at the fingertips of crews in the field. Each crew is equipped with a laptop computer containing the uaField application and the entire distribution system map (Fig. 5). At the beginning of each shift, the crews report to headquarters and plug their laptops into a docking station that accesses the AM/FM/GIS. It provides work orders for the crews to complete that day. Each work order is a combination of written instructions and graphical diagrams displayed on their network map. Proposed facilities are shown in one color, while existing components are another. After the work is completed, the crew links details to the mapping system where the new transformers, poles or meters are entered on the as-built map.

uaField also allows staking engineers to take their laptops into the field with them where they determine the equipment requirements for a new installation. They can input material orders and begin sketching potential facility sites right on the screen. Back at the office, the staking information is sent to the AM/FM/GIS and sent to the planning engineers to start the design process. A construction assembly report is routed to the materials department where the necessary equipment is pulled from inventory.

“Having the construction assembly reports automatically generated from the system really cut down on errors made in putting assembly units in place,” said John Bruns, manager of engineering and technology. “Before, these were hand written, and each staking engineer used slightly different terminology; but now it's all standardized in the system.”

The uaDispatch outage-management system monitors incoming outage calls and traces a power failure to its likely source. As trouble calls are received by the utility, their locations can be input into the system so that uaDispatch can determine if those outage locations share transformers or other equipment. By looking at common facilities in an outage area, the application can narrow down potential sources of the trouble. “In dispatch, we are able to generate a much more refined list of outages so our crews know exactly where to go to fix a problem,” said Bruns. “It's saved a lot of time and money.”

Upgrading for Continued Growth

The Branson area has continued to grow over the past five years, and WRVEC has maintained an uninterrupted relationship with UAI as the needs of the mapping system have expanded with customer demand. In 2000, UAI notified WRVEC about enhancements to the suite of applications, and WRVEC didn't hesitate to contract for the upgraded system. UAI completed installation by February 2001.

The new system provides upgraded capabilities and enhanced applications across the board, but the two greatest advantages for WRVEC have been the suite's new database structure and extension to the Web.

A More Robust Database

Although UAI still runs its applications on ESRI software, it has switched to a more robust database technology. During the upgrade, the WRVEC GIS database was converted to Microsoft SQL, a product capable of greater volume and speed. It automatically sends updated distribution network maps and data to desktop computers less than an hour after the information is added to the system. “Now everybody in the enterprise has information that is current to within an hour,” said Hamon.

In addition, SQL's ability to connect to and share data with other databases has opened new doors for WRVEC. Already the new database has been linked to the Oracle database that stores details on trouble calls received by WRVEC's interactive voice response (IVR) unit. SQL monitors the Oracle database for outage reports and automatically begins tracing a power outage as soon as the call is received.

UAI also ported WRVEC's existing CYME (Burlington, Massachusetts, U.S.) engineering analysis software to the GIS. An interface pulls data out of the mapping system for CYME to use in performing studies and what-if scenarios on the electrical system. Once the electrical engineer has found a satisfactory solution to a situation in CYME, he or she can push the information back out to the mapping system for the staking engineers and field crews to access.

Before the year is out, WRVEC plans to link the mapping system database with at least two other systems — supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and automated meter reading (AMR) — to further improve the utility's ability to recognize and diagnose outages quickly. The SCADA will notify the system if the load on a feeder drops to zero, and the AMR will tell the GIS if a specific meter has lost power. “This will reduce the number of machines that have to be monitored manually in the dispatch center,” said Hamon.

Taking GIS to the Web

The second important upgrade to the new product suite is several UAI e-business plug-ins that make applications Web-enabled. e-View publishes the mapping system with its viewing and query functionality over the Web to authorized users. e-WorkOrder allows anyone with a password to use his or her standard Web browser to call up a work order, view the map and monitor job progress. e-Dispatch brings the same capability to outage management. “For the first time in our history, WRVEC dispatchers can log on to the system from home and offer extra assistance in the event of a major storm,” said Bruns.

There are no longer worries about a dispatch manager getting cut off from vital information when he or she goes into the field during a major outage event. All he or she has to do is find an Internet connection for the laptop to keep abreast of outages. He or she can then dispatch work crews to handle the problems regardless of their location.

More importantly, a field crew member or a dispatch manager working outside the office now can feed live information about what's happening in the field directly into the system where it can be used in real-time outage analysis.

The Future

By the end of this year, WRVEC expects to know precisely how much time is being shaved off each outage event thanks to the upgraded AM/FM/GIS. In the meantime, the utility has no shortage of ideas on how it will continue to customize the mapping system.

“Eventually we will equip our field computers with wireless Internet connections so they can send and receive work orders from their vehicles without coming into headquarters to plug into the docking station,” said Bruns.

WRVEC is examining its options for installing GPS-based automatic vehicle location systems in its trucks to enable dispatchers to view crew locations on screen and determine which is closest and best equipped to handle an emergency repair.

“Once we have fully customized and integrated the new system, White River personnel will have nearly real-time access to information on everything that is happening in our service area from any location,” said Hamon. “The next time a storm strikes and a theatre goes dark in Branson, we'll know about it as soon as the audience does.”

Robert Johnston is a computer specialist with the White River Valley Electric Cooperative in Branson, Missouri, U.S. Johnston has been with WRVEC for more than two years, and presently oversees SCADA and specialized computer applications. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science with minors in math and physics.